Muslim Schools
There are already twenty-one private Islamic schools in this country. They do not receive State aid. However, pressure is being brought to bear on the Government by the Muslim Community to give them voluntary aided status. A Muslim primary school in North London has made application for State Aid and this is being considered by Government ministers. There are 4000 voluntary schools, Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist and Jewish, which receive State Aid, in England and Wales. It is to be hoped that the Government will stand firm and not extend this concession any further. The effect would be to increase the number of Islamic schools and so divide the community even further. Muslim leaders contend that the teaching of moral values has disappeared from state schools. It is sad to think that their contention is to a large extent correct but the inculcation of Islamic moral values is not the answer to the problem. Only the restoration of the teaching of Christian moral values in our schools will bring the nation to a better outlook.
The Plague of AIDS
The Government has campaigned widely to try to prevent the spread of AIDS. Yet in all the publicity it has given to the danger of AIDS it has failed to make plain that “the basic problem is promiscuity, and more specifically homosexual promiscuity”, as pointed out in July in a leader in the Daily Express. The leader went on to state: “The White Paper published by Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley shows that the Government and its health advisers are still shying away from bluntly making this last point (i.e. homosexual promiscuity). Instead it is left to consultants in the field, presumably less fearful of offending the homosexual lobby.” The leader concluded that nothing can decrease the incidence of AIDS and other sexual diseases so much as fidelity, restraint and good old-fashioned morality. With this conclusion we wholeheartedly agree. In addition, the statute on the Law Book of the land legalising sodomy should be repealed and this evil made a criminal offence again.
Murders in Strathclyde
Forty-seven murders took place in the Strathclyde Region in the first six months of this year, more than in the whole of 1990, and double the number for the same period in 1991. The removal of the death penalty many years ago has produced higher and higher murder figures. Before that time, the number of murders over the whole nation for one year was in single figures. Much is made of instances of individuals being executed wrongly. We know, however, that when the death penalty was in operation every effort was made to prevent such a thing happening by requiring that the evidence against them was overwhelming. There is little thought given in our day to the multitude of victims of murder or of the Biblical requirement that “whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed”. Only a return to Scriptural principles will wipe away the guilt of the nation in permitting the shedding of innocent blood.
The Lord Chancellor and R.C. Judges
Peterborough in the Daily Telegraph has commented on the Lord Chancellor’s invitation to Roman Catholic Judges to the traditional Westminster Abbey service at the start of the legal year in October, and to the Lord Chancellor’s Breakfast held after the service. With Cardinal Hume’s approval the R.C. Judges will attend the service, holding their own Red Mass the previous day. A spokesman said the service would remain a Church of England affair. A Protestant spokesman stated that any attempt to accommodate the Roman Catholics by changing the service would be quite wrong. He also commented that the danger with ecumenical services is that they tend to be reciprocated. Well it would be for the R.C. Judges, and for the other Judges as well, if they heard a sound exposition of Scriptural doctrine. We fear that in the present climate of the Church of England, they will hear little, if anything, that will offend or enlighten them.